As a broke college student with bills to pay back in the day, I remember the first initial stage of a lot of arcade beat ‘em ups.

Whether it be Final Fight or Knights of the Round, those introductory stages were the easy parts of the game that I could comfortably play with just one credit or two before the difficulty ramped up and the machine started to require constant offerings to the token gods. Occasionally, I’d have enough money left over after paying for rent, utilities and groceries to splurge and get a $5 roll of quarters. That’s when I’d get far enough to fight a boss like Rolento in Final Fight, provided I don’t get massacred by the cheap shenanigans of Sodom and Edi E. beforehand. I think I’ve only beaten Rolento once in the arcades — only to fall down to random peons before I could even reach Abigail. And forget about reaching Belger.

Capcom Beat 'Em Bundle for PS4, Switch and Xbox One.(Photo: Capcom)

It’s why I’ve always welcomed home console ports of arcade games. All I needed was that initial investment to buy the game and I could play it to my heart’s content. Granted, the ports weren’t perfect back in the SNES and Genesis days. But as someone who loved arcade games, console ports were a great alternative to the token-gulping originals.

This makes the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle a much welcome blast of nostalgia. In the old days, my biggest problem was having money to play arcade-perfect renditions of some of these games (with the exception of Final Fight II, which was a SNES release). These days, my problem is actually finding arcade perfect renditions to play on the newer consoles I currently have hooked up to my TV. And while I have played some home variants of most of these games in the past, the addition of two games that have never been released on console — Battle Circuit and Armored Warriors (the latter of which I have been itching to play since seeing towel-rubbing Jin Saotome’s hot-blooded Blodia Punch in Marvel vs. Capcom) — is a great extra treat. Add stalwarts Final Fight, Knights of the Round, Captain Commando, The King of Dragons and Warriors of Fate to the mix and you have an excellent collection for any fan of Capcom’s classic arcade beat ‘em ups.

Granted, time has a way of making things look … old. While a lot of these games looked fantastic at the time, especially on old CRT televisions, their pixelated warts are a lot more pronounced these days, especially in my 82-inch high-definition screen. Then again, that’s not a big issue for me given my love for classic game art. I mean, Ninja Ryukenden II (Ninja Gaiden 2 outside of Japan) on the Famicom or Nintendo Entertainment System remains my favorite game of all time. I also continue to adore the Neo Geo Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown games, which my brother and I played the most back in the day. As long as the gameplay holds up, then that’s all that really matters.

For the most part, that’s certainly still the case with the titles included in the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle, though the results can be pretty mixed depending on the game. I loved King of Dragons when it first came out, for example. Now it doesn’t just look old but feels old to boot thanks to its limited mechanics. Knights of the Round fares a little bit better thanks to its unique block mechanic. It can still be fun to just pick up and play thought it admittedly doesn’t feel quite as satisfying as it used to. It actually feels like it drags on for a bit. On the plus side, it isn’t quite the rabid quarter muncher that Final Fight is.

Final Fight in the Capcom Beat 'Em Bundle for PS4, Switch and Xbox One.

(Photo: Capcom)

Ah yes, Final Fight, the game that would make me smile one second and want to tear out my hair a couple of minutes later. I must say that the original Final Fight game actually holds up pretty well even today. Haggar, who was my favorite character to use during my college days, remains a treat to play, thanks to his unique grabbing mechanics. As an example, I prefer the combat feel of Streets of Rage’s Axel and Blaze over Final Fight’s Cody and Guy. Metro City’s mayor, however, wins over Streets of Rage 2’s big dude Max as far as I’m concerned when it comes to fun factor.

Granted, parts of Final Fight feel even more imbalanced today. As a point of comparison, my brother and I recently played the original Streets of Rage together for the first time in two decades. While the game was challenging, we still managed to beat it on our first try before running out of continues (on my last life no less with just a sliver of health left after my brother lost his last life to Mr. Big).

Final Fight, on the other hand, felt like a credit-gobbling cheese-fest at times. Overpowered boss moves are one thing but stuff like fire hazards just felt cheap and seem to be designed to burn through your credits, pun so totally intended. Those credits may be unlimited in the Beat ‘Em Up Bundle but it still makes me feel a bit salty after I thought about all the quarters my younger self plunked into the game due to its cheap tricks once you got to its later stages. It actually made me remember why I preferred Streets of Rage, which I felt was tough but also fair. Well, that and the fact that Streets of Rage 1 and 2 had Yuzo Koshiro’s awesome music. All that being said, I still found Final Fight to be enjoyable overall and also prefer it over its successor Final Fight 2.

Warriors of Fate, meanwhile, is probably my least favorite game of the bunch. Admittedly, I never played it before so I don’t have an emotional connection with it as I do with Final Fight, Knights of the Round or the King of Dragons. Overall, though, it just felt flat and repetitive and I didn’t quite enjoy it.

The opposite can be said about Battle Circuit, which builds on the basic formula of Capcom’s beat-em-ups and adds some neat mechanics. These include joystick commands for pulling off additional attacks as well as the ability to power-up certain moves. It feels like the culmination of all the beat-em-up know-how that Capcom has amassed with the addition of some diverse and creative character design that makes it over the top. And by creative, I’m talking about one of the heroes being a young girl riding a giant killer pink bird. Honestly, I’m not sure what the character designer and director was smoking when they dreamed up these characters. Whatever it was, I’m just glad they smoked it as these characters, including the bad guys, are a hoot compared to the more conventional hero types seen in most games.

The undisputed star of this show for me, though, is Armored Warriors. The game combines my love for giant robots with fun beat-em-up action as well as additional mechanics that help address the repetitive nature of these types of games. I especially liked the ability to swap robot parts by swiping them from defeated foes, which changes the way your mech plays. These include ranged attachments such as projectiles and lasers, melee swords and lower appendages such as treads and boosters. The game strikes a wonderful balance between challenge and fairness and I was able to beat bosses with usually just a couple of lives on my first run through the game. I consider it the best of the whole bunch and totally worth the price admission.

Captain Commando, meanwhile, remains solid but my experience with it was soured due to one particular flaw of the Beat ‘Em Up Bundle. It was the game that I first tried to play online with. To put it simply, online play with the game is a hot mess. The freezing and stuttering are just so bad, especially for a genre that lives on proper timing and spacing, that I now just play offline. It’s a shame, too, as these games are best enjoyed with others. The ability to play with a full group without having to round up friends and family in my living room is a big reason I was really looking forward to this game. Even when I decided to give online another shot, I couldn’t find people to play with because the lobbies for PS4 were apparently sparse. I don’t doubt that there are people playing the game but I assume they’ve all decided to just play offline like I did as this is one of the worst online experiences I’ve ever had in decades of gaming. It’s a big missed opportunity, especially given the loyalty that a lot of these games still garner from fans even today.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle provides an impressive list of arcade classics that old-school fans will definitely love. Admittedly, some of the games haven’t aged well, but stalwarts like Armored Warriors continue to be an absolute blast to play. It has one huge downside, however, as the game’s netcode is horrible, making the games virtually unplayable online due to lag. It’s a shame as the game selection is great and work well offline. Just don’t expect to have a decent multiplayer experience unless you can gather a bunch of people in your living room.